impaler:So how does this work? Stereoscopic glasses that change the point of view based on the actual position and viewing angle of the user?

If so, I've been waiting for this damn thing for 15 years.

Basically yes. It tracks the pitch and yaw of your head so you can look around in-game. I believe that, before the retail version, they are trying to increase resolution and add positional tracking so you can lean in and out, or duck, as well.

2014: The Oculus Rift is launched. It is hailed as a masterpiece by long-time video game players and a step on the road to true immersive virtual reality. In the mainstream, the device as mocked, as news reports from "reputable outlets" condemn the various adult video games which are available for use with the platform. The audiences who chided people who got lost in the virtual worlds of Everquest and World of Warcraft--and later became addicted to Facebook--overwhelmingly reject the Oculus Rift.

2015: "Sheldon, what are you doing?""I'm playing a video game.""You're not playing a video game, Sheldon. You're wearing a sleep mask!""No, it's called the Oculus Rift! It is the ultimate immersive video game experience where the camera is fixed to my head movement! Oh baby, give it to me!""Sheldon, give me that!" *puts on the Rift* "Oh my god, that is disgusting! I can't believe that woman is doing that! Putting cheese on pastrami!"

2016: The Oculus Rift sells twenty million copies during the year, and in appealing to an audience which otherwise has no interest in video games, the quality of the games almost immediately drops off a cliff. Journey 2, hailed for its simplification of the Journey experience, wins over 100 Game of the Year awards. Do Absolutely Nothing But Move Your Head Around is hailed for expanding on the template placed forward in BioShock Infinite and becomes the killer app for the platform.

I've got a dev kit and after spending time with this low-resolution, pretty much proof-of-concept model I'll be first in line for the consumer release. Things gonna be really cool once they bump up the resolution and add positional tracking, and one of my earliest concerns (lack of games) is pretty much not a problem given how many projects I'm watching seem to be embracing this thing already. Star Citizen being the most high profile.

Pretty much the only downside I've found is that some people may not take well to the VR experience in general (motion sickness*) or the game may not be configured properly. For instance if I play a game that is properly configured for the rift, I have no issues. No headaches, no motion sickness - I've done fast paced Team, Fortress 2 for hours without a problem. However I've also tried some demo's however that left me nauseous because the experience either wasn't tailored for the device and was instead being adapted by drivers, or the game itself introduced weird latency. It's gonna be really important that your computer hardware is up to snuff, and the developers work on getting the support perfect.

For the record I have a mild astigmatism and can't really see anaglyphic (red/blue) 3d, but have no problems with the Rift. My recommendation is to use contacts if at all possible if you are very near-sighted and need correction. Glasses do work of course but they shrink your field of view since there's more distance between the Rift's optics and your eyes.

Right now I'm waiting on my Omni treadmill since, as cool as VR with the Rift is, it feels really weird to be sitting still and have the world move around me. Seems like for a complete VR experience it's going to eventually couple the Rift, Omni treadmill, and some kind of wireless controller or kinect based control scheme. I tried some demo's out that had 1:1 tracking with razer hydras and the gunplay was *very* cool. Holding a sniper rifle up and peering through the scope with one eye was fantastic.

* Some people who get motion sick in real life have reported they are just fine in the Rift, and vice versa. Seems to vary from person to person, like how some can't play FPS shooters on a TV/monitor for the same reason.

Got to try one a few weeks ago. Even with the processing issues they are working through (FPS, Tearing), it was nothing short of extraordinary. I did the racing demo and it took actively concentrating on keeping my butt in the chair to not fall over.

I have very poor vision in my left eye, but it's still functional. However, I cannot see 3D movies nor stereoscopic pictures because I only focus with one eye. How would the Rift be for me, considering it has two screens?

The occulus will likely mean a huge change in the way games and virtual worlds are created. I bet it totally changes the way we look at gaming within 5 years. I was happy to see John Carmack join as CTO. Carmack has essentially driven all 3d gaming technology since Doom. Sure his games lately may suck, but he's always been about pushing hardware to the limits and opening up his source code to influence future developers. Without him I doubt we'd be where we are at today when it comes to standardization and level of technology. Heck, Call of Duty is still basically using a heavily modified Quake 3 engine.

Mike_LowELL:2014: The Oculus Rift is launched. It is hailed as a masterpiece by long-time video game players and a step on the road to true immersive virtual reality. In the mainstream, the device as mocked, as news reports from "reputable outlets" condemn the various adult video games which are available for use with the platform. The audiences who chided people who got lost in the virtual worlds of Everquest and World of Warcraft--and later became addicted to Facebook--overwhelmingly reject the Oculus Rift.

2015: "Sheldon, what are you doing?""I'm playing a video game.""You're not playing a video game, Sheldon. You're wearing a sleep mask!""No, it's called the Oculus Rift! It is the ultimate immersive video game experience where the camera is fixed to my head movement! Oh baby, give it to me!""Sheldon, give me that!" *puts on the Rift* "Oh my god, that is disgusting! I can't believe that woman is doing that! Putting cheese on pastrami!"

2016: The Oculus Rift sells twenty million copies during the year, and in appealing to an audience which otherwise has no interest in video games, the quality of the games almost immediately drops off a cliff. Journey 2, hailed for its simplification of the Journey experience, wins over 100 Game of the Year awards. Do Absolutely Nothing But Move Your Head Around is hailed for expanding on the template placed forward in BioShock Infinite and becomes the killer app for the platform.

Seems like the headset is already suffering from the same problem that the Ouya did. Rampant hype generation by fanboys. Remember the Ouya threads on fark? It was going to be as powerful as a 360, it was going to have 1080p@60fps, it was going to have blazing high quality audio and all this for $99! It'd be at the forefront of the next-next-generation of consoles! People would be buying it instead of 'the next Xbox'. Then it released and ohh... ohh dear... it wasn't more powerful than a 360 (substantially less in fact), it wasn't going to do 1080p@60fps because most of the games are Android mobile ones jury rigged to use a controller. But it did cost $99... and delivered exactly what the company had actually promised; just not what the fanboys had hyped it up to be.

I'm old enough to have played with VR headsets in the 90's both the high end W Industries one and several consumer versions that took VGA input. Sure this new take on something we had in the 90's is interesting but looking at the sheer hype around it.... Ohhh boy Ouya 2 here we come.

If it does 720p@30fps per eye and costs $300 at retail and can accommodate a pair of glasses for those that need to wear them I'll be impressed. I'll be more impressed if it sells 10k units at retail.

Beyond that all I see is a lot of people blowing smoke up each others backsides.

Vaneshi:Seems like the headset is already suffering from the same problem that the Ouya did. Rampant hype generation by fanboys. Remember the Ouya threads on fark? It was going to be as powerful as a 360, it was going to have 1080p@60fps, it was going to have blazing high quality audio and all this for $99! It'd be at the forefront of the next-next-generation of consoles! People would be buying it instead of 'the next Xbox'. Then it released and ohh... ohh dear... it wasn't more powerful than a 360 (substantially less in fact), it wasn't going to do 1080p@60fps because most of the games are Android mobile ones jury rigged to use a controller. But it did cost $99... and delivered exactly what the company had actually promised; just not what the fanboys had hyped it up to be.

I'm old enough to have played with VR headsets in the 90's both the high end W Industries one and several consumer versions that took VGA input. Sure this new take on something we had in the 90's is interesting but looking at the sheer hype around it.... Ohhh boy Ouya 2 here we come.

If it does 720p@30fps per eye and costs $300 at retail and can accommodate a pair of glasses for those that need to wear them I'll be impressed. I'll be more impressed if it sells 10k units at retail.

Beyond that all I see is a lot of people blowing smoke up each others backsides.

Ahh, the old "This is going to fail because something unrelated to it failed". Yep, you present a watertight case.